


One Final Showdown

by tmwillson3



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon Compliant, F/M, Healing, Light Angst, Self-Sacrifice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-20
Updated: 2018-08-20
Packaged: 2019-06-30 03:17:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15743115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tmwillson3/pseuds/tmwillson3
Summary: Post TLJ. When Rey receives a message from a First Order ship, she goes out to investigate, thinking a changed Ben wants her help. She was wrong; Hux has other plans.Then Ben comes back.





	One Final Showdown

**Author's Note:**

> No, I still don't own Star Wars, or anything else I reference. This story is inspired by art by sparklepoodles for Drabble Me This in the Facebook group Reylo Fic Recs. If you haven't checked out her Reylo work on tumblr, you should!
> 
> This is just one of the ways I see Episode IX going, involving Hux and a coup. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy the drabble!

As the hydraulic doors hissed open, Rey rushed onto the command deck of the  _ Finalizer _ , looking for Ben.

 

Who else would send an encoded transmission to the Resistance asking for her to come at once for assistance, referring to their last conversation?

 

\-----

 

“Rey, I'm a failure,” he had started out by saying, head downcast. “I thought I had it figured out, that I could succeed where my mother couldn't. I can't.”

 

“No, you're  _ not _ a failure,” she hurried to say, reaching out to him unconsciously, at least until he shied away from her.

 

\------

 

She had seen the message and jumped on the nearest x-wing she could, since Chewie and the Falcon were elsewhere.

 

She was allowed in without issue, and no one met her there. When she made it to the center of the room, her breath caught.

 

General Hux stood there, an evil smirk on his face.

 

“I'm glad you could join me, filthy desert rat. I'm sure you're wondering why I'm here.”

 

For a moment, Rey felt a sense of betrayal come over her, but she fought it back at once. Not after all they had shared. Something else was going on.

 

\-------

 

“Don't lie to me, or yourself,” Ben had fired back passionately. “I did this to myself. No one here trusts me or accepts me as the Supreme Leader.”

 

“That's because you're different than Snoke or Hux,” replied Rey, trying again to comfort him.

 

\---------

 

Rey glared at Hux a few moments more, and then she answered, “Yes, I was curious. You have two minutes.”

 

She pulled out her rebuilt lightsaber, not really wanting to use it, but hoping a show of power would calm down Hux.

 

“Oh, please, you don't want to kill me. Well, you might since I have some unpleasant news from the Supreme Leader that you need to know.”

 

She froze, her eyes narrowing until Hux saw the fury that Kylo Ren had seen in the snow of Starkiller Base. 

 

“Tell me,” she demanded. “Why was I summoned here?”

 

\----------

 

She had felt the pain and betrayal rippling through Ben just a day ago, and she had reached out to him at once, wanting to comfort him as he had been there for her.

 

He had told her to go at first, but once he realized she wasn't going anywhere, the tension in his shoulders lessened.

 

\---------

 

Hux cleared his throat and pulled out a blaster with one hand, while his other remained hidden.

 

Rey sprung into action until Hux screamed, “Do you want the Resistance to die right now? Then kill me!”

 

She stopped, her lost eyes examining the area around her.

 

Two holos suddenly appeared, one with a feed from the Resistance, and the other a feed from a series of droids that had been following the rebels and circling their base for the past month.

 

“These droids have been programmed to self-destruct if I press this button currently in my hand,” said Hux, showing his hidden hand. “If you touch or hurt me, they all die. Do you want that?”

 

“Then tell me why I'm here,” Rey hissed, looking for Ben through the Force and not finding him.

 

\-------

 

“You are stronger because you're not like them at all,” Rey had told Ben. “You're sensitive, and you want to do the right thing. Don't give up on yourself. I believe in you.”

 

Ben's eyes suddenly shot up and beheld her, as though for the first time all over again.

 

“Ask me to come to you,” he had begged. “Tell me that you'll stand beside me, even if I am broken, and that you'll be my strength.”

 

\---------

 

“You're here to die,” cackled Hux. “You're the sacrifice, and everyone is going to watch as I shoot you in honor of killing our former Supreme Leader Snoke. Then, there will be peace in the galaxy.”

 

Hux put his finger on the trigger to shoot, and Rey found herself unwilling to resign herself to this fate. All the same, she wasn't about to stand in the way of peace. It just all felt wrong.

 

\-------

 

Ben's eyes pleaded with her, and she found herself blurting out what she had been trying to hide for many months.

 

“Ben, I love you. Please, come home and back to me.”

 

“Even though I'll leave afterwards to come back here and finish what I started?” he said, his feet planted and eyes carefully watching her.

 

“Yes,” she affirmed. “Sides don't matter to me. Only you.”

 

\--------

 

It was as Hux was about to shoot that a red lightsaber suddenly rammed through the door, making Hux flinch in surprise. 

 

“That's impossible! He was already gone!”

 

“I guess not anymore,” said Rey triumphantly, feeling the presence of Ben near at last.

 

“That door was just replaced. It was supposed to be stronger. That's impossible that he could do it!” said Hux, drawing closer to the door.

 

Another moment passed, and Ben began to hack at the door, like it was the easiest, most natural thing he knew how to do.

 

“It can't be! It just isn't possible!” screamed Hux, his voice taking on a whining quality.

 

“You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means,” quipped Rey.

 

Hux angrily turned around and shot at Rey, who blocked the shot with her lightsaber. Then, he fired off again, only for that bolt to stop mid-air, thanks to Ben.

 

While Hux was distracted by the blaster bolt, Rey used the Force to grab the button out of Hux’s slackened hand.

 

“I didn't order this,” growled Ben. “Is this a coup?”

 

“Yes, it is, and now you're both going to die!” cried Hux, pushing a red button beside him.

 

Ben was choking Hux a moment later, holding him in place as he ran to Rey. She clung to him.

 

An engine roared to life, and Rey and Ben stared at the laser cannon filling the room that was about to fire.

 

“You weren't at the base,” he said softly in her hair. “I couldn't find you, and then I felt you here. I'm sorry. My leaving let this happen. I've failed you. But I can make this right.”

 

“Ben, wait-"

 

As the cannon fired, he used the Force to send her into the next room through a window, while he and Hux suffered. 

 

Rey screamed and ran to him a moment later.

 

He was severely burned, on the verge of death. Her eyes filled with tears as he heaved a sigh.  “Touch me, just one last time. For real,” he croaked. 

 

She threw her arms around him, opening all of the barriers in her mind. As she did so, she discovered that he had done the same.

 

She saw his love for her, and then she saw an image of Darth Vader, crawling from the wreckage on Mustafar. Then, another image was superimposed on it, of Leia healing Han of a wound.

 

Of course, the Force!

 

Rey gave herself over the Force, trusting it to help her in her goal. In a moment, she felt a great ripple of energy pass through her, and then light. She concentrated on that light, in channeling it into the quickly dying body under her.

 

“Ben, I refuse to lose you now!” she exclaimed as another ripple of energy and light rushed from her.

 

And then, nothing. She felt at peace, for some unknown reason.

 

She lifted her head.

 

She saw his eyes, and a healed face at last.

 

“You have to finish what you started,” she whispered. “And I'm going to stand beside you.”

 

He smiled before dragging her down for a kiss.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed!


End file.
